PUBLISHED20 May 2022
Our DocPlay Doc-List
A shoutout playlist to DocPlay - Australia's dedicated home for streaming real stories!
A special selection from DocPlay’s catalogue showcasing Documentary Australia’s seven impact areas.
These documentary films highlight the rich diversity of voices we are proud to support – spreading their messages far and wide to affect social change.
If you are a long-term supporter of ours – you might even see a project you’ve supported here!
Westwind: Djalu's Legacy
Synopsis
An enlightening and powerful film which profiles internationally revered musician, craftsman and spiritual leader Djalu Gurriwiwi. As an important custodian of aboriginal culture, Djalu and his community must find a new voice and leader to carry their songlines and traditions through future generations. The film follows Djalu and his son on an important journey which features musician Gotye and artist Ghostpatrol to keep this culture alive.
Baulkham Hills African Ladies Troupe
Synopsis:
Baulkham Hills African Ladies Troupe is a celebration of the remarkable spirits of four African women survivors of sexual abuse, and the triumph of their improbable theatre troupe.
Four women fled from different parts of Africa to Australia in order to escape violence and abuse. They find a safe haven in Australia, but still they hold their pain silently within them – until they decide to join a theatre group and speak out. Under the nurturing guidance of theatre director Ros Horin, they collaborate to let their life stories be transformed into an extraordinary and joyously uplifting theatrical experience. This film charts their personal journeys from trauma to healing and public triumphs, as the Troupe’s show moves from a stage in western Sydney out to the world.
Embrace
Synopsis:
One woman’s journey to inspire everyBODY. When body image activist Taryn Brumfitt posted an unconventional before-and-after photograph in 2013, it was seen by more than 100 million worldwide and sparked an international media frenzy. In her forceful debut, Brumfitt continues her crusade exploring the global issue of body loathing. She travels the world to interview an impressive range of women about their attitudes to their bodies.
Mountain
Synopsis:
Only three centuries ago, setting out to climb a mountain would have been considered close to lunacy. Mountains were places of peril, not beauty, an upper world to be shunned, not sought out. Why do mountains now hold us spellbound, drawing us into their dominion, often at the cost of our lives?
MOUNTAIN is a cinematic and musical collaboration between acclaimed director Jennifer Peedom (SHERPA) and the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO), one of the greatest chamber orchestras in the world. Shot by the world’s best adventure cinematographers and written by best-selling author Robert Macfarlane, this feature documentary will explore the troubled and triumphant history of our timeless fascination with mountains
I Used To Be Normal: A Boyband Fangirl Story
Whiteley
Synopsis:
Whitely is told “in his own words” using personal letters, notebooks and photographs, interwoven with reconstructions, animations, archival interviews and rare footage.
Whiteley’s constant muse was his wife, Wendy. Both a catalyst for his creative passions and a witness to their incendiary consequences, she remains the sole custodian of his artistic legacy. Wendy was the subject of some of his most famous and popular paintings, and was the mother of their only child, Arkie. Like so many brilliant artists, Whiteley’s ambitious ascent to dizzying heights would eventually meet with a tragic downfall. Having built a tower of artistic statements exploring monumental ideas like Love, Evil, War, Beauty and “Endlessnessism”, he irretrievably fell from it.
Whiteley’s artworks were made across just 30 years, but their ongoing impact on Australia’s creative culture is extraordinary: he blazed a trail that still lights a path forward for a new generation of artists.
Sanctuary
Synopsis:
Khaled fought against the “beast” of terror when working as an interpreter for the Coalition Forces in Iraq. Born Iraqi but raised in the Netherlands he believes in Western ideals of freedom like any Dutchman. But Khaled couldn’t escape the legacy of violence and spends the next 10 years travelling across 4 continents in search of safety. In the age of terror, Khaled is someone to be feared and is treated inhumanely. In 2015 he documents his quest to return home. Will he find sanctuary and have the life he always deserved or will he finally crack and become the “beast” they all fear him to be?